


Snapshots

by swimmingwolf59



Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Dad AU, Drabbles, Fluff, M/M, Much swimming, Public Nudity, SouHaru Week 2015, Stars, These two just being dorks in general, future fish, lostsuke, winter cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-04 11:22:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 13,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5332352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swimmingwolf59/pseuds/swimmingwolf59
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of drabbles for Souharu Week 2015!</p><p>Day 1: Firsts and Childhood<br/>Day 2: Numbers and Space<br/>Day 3: Family and AU<br/>Day 4: Domestic and Winter<br/>Day 5: Hurt/Comfort and Support<br/>Day 6: Dare and Future<br/>Day 7: Competition and Olympics<br/>Day 8: *bonus* Free</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. That Boy with the Ocean Blue Eyes

The same kid always showed up at the pool every day alone.

Sousuke always had a lane all to himself until he showed up. He liked swimming at night, so his mom always took him to the pool an hour or two before closing time; because of the odd time, there was hardly anyone else there. This usually allowed each person to have their own lane, which was nice for Sousuke especially since he wanted to practice his butterfly without killing people.

But lately he’d stopped expecting to have it to himself for long, because _he_ always showed up.

The kid was small, regardless of the fact that Sousuke was big for his age. He had short, black hair, piercing ocean blue eyes that always seemed to accuse Sousuke of something he didn’t do, and only ever swam freestyle. If he was honest to himself, the kid was a little unnerving – however, he was mostly just annoyed at the guy.

Without fail, he always picked the lane Sousuke was in. And today was no different.

At that point Sousuke was starting to wonder if the kid was doing it on purpose.

Glaring at the boy as he climbed into his lane, Sousuke decided he’d had enough of staying silent about the matter. He was curious and irritated, and wanted to know _why him_.

“Why do you always get in this lane?” Sousuke asked harshly, crossing his arms as he glared down the boy.

Despite his tough-guy act, the kid didn’t seem at all fazed as he turned to stare at him with those blank, endless eyes. “It’s convenient – we’re about the same speed, so I don’t have to worry about accommodating for other people.”

Sousuke faltered; he’d never thought about it before, but that _was_ a fairly good reason.

But still.

“Why don’t you swim anything but freestyle?” He demanded, stopping the kid as he was about to push off the wall.

When the boy turned to stare at him again, Sousuke actually felt relief that there was some irritation in those eyes. At least he knew he _could_ feel emotion. “Because I like being free.”

Sousuke scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Is that supposed to be a bad pun?”

“No.”

Well that stumped Sousuke; the boy had been completely serious. He wasn’t able to recover before the boy took off down the lane, slipping easily into his usual freestyle. Sousuke watched him swim a lap, trying to fight back the admiration rising in his chest.

This strange kid had the most beautiful, graceful freestyle he’d ever seen. He seemed to be one with the water as he effortlessly drew himself forward at a speed that got Sousuke’s blood pumping and his pulse pounding. Swimming seemed so easy and magnificent when that kid was in the water; it was like he was born to be a swimmer.

Maybe part of Sousuke’s irritation at the kid stemmed from the fact that he was incredibly jealous of him.

He wished he could swim like that.

A sudden, desperate need to prove himself blossomed in Sousuke’s chest and he got in the kid’s way before he could swim another lap. This time, the irritation was clear on the boy’s face.

“Are you trying to be annoying?”

“Race with me!” Sousuke demanded, completely ignoring what the kid had just said. His heart was beating fast and adrenaline pumped through his body.

The boy just stared at him for a moment; Sousuke couldn’t tell if he was contemplating what he’d said or judging the fact that he said it. Man, he hated being unable to tell what kids thought; adults were just impossible to guess, but he was usually pretty good at reading kids.

This guy on the other hand…

“Okay.” The reply was short and sweet, and for a moment Sousuke wondered if he’d dreamt it. But then the boy glanced towards the clock. “On the 30?”

“…Sure,” Sousuke replied, swallowing in anticipation.

The resulting silence was tense. Sousuke’s blood rushed in his ears so that he couldn’t even hear the gentle splashing of the other swimmers in adjacent lanes. All he saw was the water in front of him, welcoming him, and the boy out of his peripheral.

The second the hand hit the 30, Sousuke and the boy shot forward. It was, of course, a freestyle race (Sousuke had never seen the boy swim anything else), which was one of Sousuke’s better strokes. He drew himself forward, relishing the pull of the water against him, pushing himself to the limit. The pressure beside him was intense; the boy had been so mellow when they’d been talking, but he was so different in the water. It was like Sousuke was a small fish running from a large dolphin, which was funny considering their differences in size.

He’d never met anyone as fast and good at swimming as this kid. His childhood friend Rin was really good at butterfly, but he had nothing on this kid’s freestyle.

No one did.

The boy pulled ahead of him on the flip turn but, despite the panic clutching his chest, this only spurred Sousuke to try harder. His lungs were bursting in his chest and his heart was about to pound out of his body, but still he pushed himself harder, trying to catch up to the mystical creature in front of him. He had no idea why he was trying so hard, why this little race with some kid he didn’t know meant so much to him; all he knew was that he wanted to win. He wanted to win, perhaps to prove he was there, perhaps to prove that he could swim too. Because really, with the way this kid swam, how would he ever recognize others?

No one was as graceful as he was; no one could be as good as he was.

Sousuke lost by three entire seconds, a margin that was too big for his liking. He stood in the shallow end, chest heaving, shaking from frustration. All of his adrenaline was gone, and he just felt tired.

But under the exhaustion, however, he felt something else. Something exciting, that left him elevated and breathless in anticipation. He had no idea what the feeling was, or why the race with this strange kid had made him feel it; all he knew was that it wasn’t a bad feeling. In fact, it was a feeling he wouldn’t mind experiencing again.

Sousuke challenged the boy to four more races that day before the pool closed and they had to get out, and he lost every single time. He was breathless, frustrated, but he strangely found himself smiling.

Racing this boy was… _fun_.

They climbed out of the pool, and without a word the boy started to walk away. Fierce desperation rose in Sousuke’s chest and it was so uncontrollable that he found himself running after the boy, his arm outstretched.

“Wait!!”

The boy turned back to stare at him, water dripping down his body.

“What’s your name?” Sousuke breathed, still panting hard from their races. He was endlessly frustrated by the fact that the boy didn’t look at all winded, while he himself could hardly breathe.

He thought he saw the ghost of a smile on the boy’s face. “Haruka.”

And with that, he left the pool, not even asking for Sousuke’s name.

Sousuke watched him walk away until he couldn’t see him anymore; it was only then that he processed his mom calling to him. He told her to wait for him before he entered the locker rooms. While he showered the pool water out of his hair and off his body, the boy’s name stubbornly resonated in his mind.

_Haruka._

Surprisingly, Sousuke found himself smiling again.

He hoped he could race Haruka again sometime.


	2. Sky Full of Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stars remind Sousuke of a lot of things.

Sousuke and Haru discovered that lying on the beach at night was a perfect way to view the stars.

They’d discovered it by accident. Ever since he’d moved in with Haru, Sousuke had learned that the freestyler enjoyed going down to the beach for nightly swims where he didn’t have to pay or worry about crowds. He went nearly every night but Sousuke usually didn’t; after a while, however, Sousuke’s curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to know what was so special about the beach at night that drew Haru back all the time.

The sight that’d greeted him was stunning.

Sousuke was born and had grown up in the big city; because of all of the pollution, he’d never really gotten to see the stars in all their glory. Going to the beach at night with Haru was the first time he’d seen the stars so brightly and clearly, and it was absolutely breathtaking. Each one sparkled as bright as the sun and the sky was so empty of clouds he could see constellations clearly, even if he’d never be able to say which ones they were. He’d had _no idea_ that the sky could be so beautiful.

He went to the beach every night with Haru after that. The water was cold as hell to swim in, but Sousuke kept going back for the stars. He lived for the moments when they just laid on their backs in the sand, neither saying a word, and just stared up at the millions of bright lights in the sky.

“What do the stars remind you of?” Haru asked one night, breaking the tranquil silence. He was leaning on Sousuke’s shoulder (his uninjured one) and Sousuke had his arm around him.

Breathing lightly through his nose, Sousuke contemplated Haru’s question.

The stars reminded him of a lot of things. He’d looked up at the stars a lot when Rin had been in Australia, wondering if his best friend was seeing the same stars as he was, if that thought comforted him like it did Sousuke. He liked to think that Rin really wasn’t that far away, that there was a logical reason for why he’d stopped writing him letters, and the stars had been the embodiment of that. They reminded him that something interconnected the entire world, that Rin was still his friend.

He’d looked up at the stars the day he’d busted his shoulder. He’d been in pain, and his tears had blurred his vision, but he still remembered faintly making out the stars shining through the small gaps in the clouds. It had rained that day, the day Sousuke thought his life was destroyed for good, and he’d hated the stars then. He hated that the world was moving on, that light was still breaking through the darkness, because he couldn’t move on, he couldn’t break through. He was ruined, and the stars had just seemed to mock him.

He’d looked up at the stars the day he graduated high school. His life was still uncertain, frighteningly so, and he’d been looking up at those bright little balls of light as if they would give him direction. Apparently the North Star was supposed to act like a compass, but Sousuke had always been bad with directions and the stars had not helped him then.

He’d looked up at the stars the moment he realized he loved Haruka. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way; it was a mistake. They hadn’t seen each other for years, the animosity and tension between them was still there. Faded, but all too noticeable. The whole thing had, ironically, taken place at Rin’s wedding. Sousuke had stepped outside, needing a breather from the hot wedding venue and the millions of people crushing against him as they tried to talk to Rin and congratulate him.

He’d found Haruka outside, sitting on the grass (probably staining his white suit) and staring up at the sky. A force Sousuke still didn’t understand compelled him to sit next to the guy he’d hated for nearly his entire life and look up at the sky with him. The stars were dim, but visible, and the night was cold.

It had been a surreal moment. Sousuke caught Haru shivering and, without a word, had taken off his suit jacket and wrapped it around the smaller man’s shoulders. It was big enough on Haru that it worked just fine as a regular old jacket; the freestyler had glanced at him, nodded once, in thanks presumably, and proceeded to pull the jacket tighter around his shoulders.

“Yamazaki… I have no idea what I’m doing with my life,” Haru had said eventually, causing Sousuke to let out a dry laugh.

“Nanase, I haven’t had the slightest idea what to do with my life since middle school.” Sousuke looked sternly at the stars, even as he felt Haru’s gaze on him. “I can hardly help you with that.”

“Rin’s always known,” Haru said softly. “He always had a goal in mind, now he’s married, and here I am floundering around like a fish out of water.”

“Rin’s just one of the lucky ones,” Sousuke sighed, leaning back on his hands. “He makes it all seem so easy while the rest of us are over here drowning.”

Haru was suddenly laughing quietly; that got Sousuke to draw his attention from the sky and gape at the man sitting next to him. He’d _never_ seen him laugh before, and he knew from Rin that most people hadn’t. Though Sousuke could find no reason why Haru _would_ be laughing, the moment was special; Haru, who never laughed, was laughing for him and for him alone.

“What’s so funny?” Sousuke eventually grumbled when he picked his jaw off the ground.

“Sorry – I just found it amusing that we both made water metaphors to describe our pathetic lives,” Haru replied, smiling now. He just kept hitting Sousuke with all of these rare expressions, so really it was inevitable that Sousuke would start thinking the freestyler was cute. “We’re more alike than I realized, Yamazaki.”

Sousuke snorted, grinning lightly at Haru. “I guess we are, Nanase.”

“…Would you be upset if I quit swimming, Yamazaki?” Haru murmured after a moment of silence.

The question startled Sousuke. He turned to blink owlishly at Haru. “Why do you care what I think?”

“You were the one who told me I had a talent and that I should keep going for it.” Haru glanced at him pointedly. “To do what you’d never be able to.”

Sousuke flinched, and he sighed heavily as he drew a hand through his hair. “I regret saying that to you, Nanase, I really do. You were just trying to figure things out for yourself, and I was acting like everyone else and childishly forcing my frustrations and dreams on you. I should’ve known better than anyone else that you need to figure things out on your own, that your dream is more important than the dreams and ideals of others. I’m sorry, Nanase.”

Haru opened his mouth to say something, but Sousuke wasn’t done. “If you want to quit swimming, if you think it’ll help you move forward, then I think you should do it. Because there’s nothing worse than standing absolutely still.”

Haru continued to stare at him for a moment before he turned back to staring at the sky. Sousuke followed his gaze and found that some of the clouds had drifted away, so now the stars were even more visible. “…Rin’s going to be so mad.”

“Well, fuck him!” Sousuke grinned, reaching over to lightly punch Haru’s arm. “You have your own choices to make, and they have nothing to do with Rin.”

Haru was suddenly smirking at him. “I don’t think you would’ve dared to say that in high school.”

“Probably not!” Sousuke laughed. “But I had no idea what I was doing in high school – not that I have any better of an idea now. But at least now I know that I need to move forward on my own.”

“You know, no one’s ever had the nerve to tell me something like that before,” Haru said. He was looking at the stars again. “Thank you, Sousuke.”

Sousuke’s breath caught; Haru had never called him by his first name before. Looking over at the man sitting next to him, Sousuke couldn’t remember at all why he’d ever hated him. Haru’s hair was almost blue from the starlight shining down on him and it fluttered slightly from the night breeze. His backdrop was an almost clear sky of bright stars and Sousuke couldn’t help but wonder: had Haru always been that beautiful?

Without even thinking (he’d probably had more to drink than he’d thought), Sousuke leaned over and kissed Haru. He had no idea what compelled him to do it, but something told him it was right, and it felt like the only good decision he’d made in years. He could feel Haru’s surprise, and he was suddenly nervous of rejection; what if Haru still hated his guts?

But soon he felt Haru pressing back against him and he felt himself relax into the kiss. It was gentle, tentative, experimental, but even so Sousuke had never felt surer of anything in his life. When they eventually parted, Sousuke rested his forehead against Haru’s.

“I have no idea what I’m doing, and you don’t either…” Sousuke stared into Haruka’s eyes, the eyes that had always grabbed his attention even when he’d hated them. “…but maybe together we can find our way back to shore?”

“You’re just making water metaphors on purpose now,” Haru replied; he was smiling again. He wrapped his arms around Sousuke’s shoulders as Sousuke leaned forward to kiss him again. When they parted, Haru raised a hand to caress Sousuke’s cheek gently. “But maybe you’re right.”

“I love you, Haruka,” Sousuke murmured, the words just tumbling out suddenly. He had no idea where they’d come from, as he hadn’t even realized they were a possibility until they were out in the open.

“Since when?” Haru replied, his eyes twinkling with mischief. This close, Sousuke could see everything; maybe this was how close someone had to be before they could truly understand Haruka Nanase.

“I have no idea.” Sousuke laughed and nuzzled his nose into Haru’s cheek. “I thought I hated you.”

“Well, I’m glad you don’t,” Haru murmured, “Because I love you too, Sousuke.”

Not even allowing Sousuke to be stunned, Haru drew him into another kiss. Maybe it had just been his imagination, but the stars seemed to shine even brighter than before.

 

\--

 

“…They remind me of you,” Sousuke finally said as he drew himself from his memories, finding it hard to voice his complicated emotions and tangled thoughts.

“You are so sappy,” Haru sighed, rolling his eyes. Sousuke grinned and laughed before he drew his boyfriend into a light kiss.

“What do they remind you of then, Haruka?” he asked when they separated.

Haru glanced up at the sky thoughtfully for a moment. “…Mackerel.”

“What?! How the fuck do they remind you of mackerel?!”

“Have you ever seen a live mackerel?” Haru tilted his head to the side; he was trying so hard to be serious, but Sousuke could see the corners of his mouth tilting upwards slowly. “They have a twinkle in their eye that’s as bright as the stars up there.”

Sousuke just gaped at him for a moment. Eventually he shook his head, chuckling softly. “You’re crazy.”

“At least it makes more sense than seeing _me_ up there,” Haru retorted before he curled up tighter against Sousuke’s side.

“I don’t _see_ you up there; you asked me what they reminded me of, not what I saw!” Sousuke replied stubbornly, refusing to believe that his answer made less sense than his boyfriend’s.

Haruka snorted. “It still doesn’t make sense.”

“At least my brain isn’t full of fish,” Sousuke snapped, nuzzling his nose into Haru’s hair affectionately.

“It is if I’m made of fish,” Haru said, pressing a soft kiss to Sousuke’s jaw. “Which I am, so you’re out of luck, Sousuke.”

Sousuke couldn’t help but laugh loudly at that. Curling his arm tighter around Haru, he pulled him closer to him and elapsed into silence again as they gazed at the stars. Even if their friends were still surprised they were together, Sousuke really did love this guy. He didn’t think he’d ever been happier than he was right now, lying with Haru on the beach looking up at the stars that would probably always remind him of his boyfriend.

Because this moment, this spot, was special; as special as Haruka, and as special as the stars in the sky.


	3. If It's Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sousuke goes on a date, but forgets to mention that he's a single father.

In hindsight, Sousuke probably should’ve warned the cute barista that he had a kid _before_ he asked him out for dinner.

Sousuke’s life seemed to be a collection of mistakes and bad decisions, and the fact that he had a toddler at 23 was just further proof of that. First he went off and wrecked his shoulder in middle school, which crushed any professional swimming dreams he’d had. Then, in undergrad, when he was finally starting to pick up the pieces and find what he was interested in besides swimming, he got a girl pregnant and she ditched the kid on him before leaving forever. He’d had to take a year off from school, the year that was supposed to be his graduating year, to raise his son until he was old enough to safely leave at the university’s daycare so Sousuke could finish his studies.

His son was two when he graduated with a BS in chemistry with a focus on forensic science, gave up on graduate school for the time being, and instead focused on getting a job. Once he managed to land a position in a small lab at his university, Sousuke felt like he’d finally picked up the pieces of his life again.

It’d been difficult, and some part of him still wondered sometimes if it would’ve been better to set the kid up for adoption, but whenever he looked at small Ken he knew it had all been worth it.

He met Haruka when Ken was four.

The café that he frequented after work had recently hired a new barista who had to be the most beautiful man Sousuke had ever seen. He had short black hair, a small frame, and his voice was soft when he took orders. What really blew Sousuke away, however, were those _eyes_ ; they were a deep, swirling ocean blue, the emotions barely reflected there as subtle as the crashing waves. Sousuke felt like he could drown in those eyes.

“Sir?” The barista said, just a bit louder than before, breaking Sousuke out of his trance. Sousuke blinked slowly, to which the barista raised an eyebrow. “May I take your order?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Sousuke cleared his throat awkwardly, a light blush dusting his cheeks. “I’ll have a medium cappuccino, no whip.”

“Medium cappuccino…” the barista muttered to himself as he wrote Sousuke’s order on a cup. When he was done, he glanced up again. “Name?”

Sousuke had been so busy staring at the barista’s face that the question completely caught him off guard. He flushed darker than before, forgetting the context of why the barista would ask him a question like that. “Excuse me?”

“Your name, sir,” the barista repeated, his eyebrows slightly furrowed in irritation. “You have been to a café before, right?”

“I come here all the time, thanks,” Sousuke muttered, embarrassment washing through him. Why was he acting like such an idiot?

“You sure don’t act like it,” the barista snorted. He tapped his pen on the cup impatiently. “Are you going to give me your name, or are we going to stand here all day? You’re holding up the line.”

“Sousuke,” he gritted out before digging in his pocket for some money. He practically threw it on the counter, not even bothering to count it. “Keep the change.”

“…As you only give me the exact amount, _Sousuke_ ,” the barista replied sarcastically as he counted the money. Sousuke just clicked his tongue before stalking over to the other side of the café to wait for his drink; how he managed to pull out the exact change from his pocket was beyond him.

But geez that pretty boy had a pissy attitude.

Not that it stopped Sousuke from wanting to kiss him.

They had four more fateful encounters of the barista being snarky and Sousuke being an idiot before he learned his name was Haruka. It took two more encounters for Sousuke to call him that to his face. By the tenth encounter, Sousuke had finally learned how to get lost in Haruka’s beauty without acting like a total idiot around him. By the twelfth, he found Haruka’s snarky responses endearing. By the fifteenth he was full out flirting with him. By the eighteenth, Sousuke found a phone number scrawled messily onto his cup.

And, by the twentieth, Sousuke asked him out to dinner.

“So you _can_ order food normally,” Haruka had said when they were ordering their food at the seafood place Sousuke had taken him to. While Sousuke himself didn’t care much for fish, Haruka had refused to be taken anywhere else and Sousuke figured it was a small price to pay.

Sousuke kicked him lightly under the table. “I happen to be a functional human being, thank you very much.”

“That’s debatable.”

“Shut up,” Sousuke laughed, rubbing his foot against Haruka’s ankle instead.

“I guess I should instigate the small talk,” Haruka sighed, leaning back in his chair slightly as he regarded Sousuke. Sousuke felt himself heating up a little under his gaze. “So you said you’re a forensic scientist?”

“Yeah, I’ve been doing that for a little bit over a year now,” Sousuke replied, shaking the water around in his glass distractingly.

“What did you do before then?”

“I was still in school as an undergrad.”

Haru raised an eyebrow as he sipped his water. “Isn’t that kind of a long time to be an undergrad?”

“Well I had to take a year off because I—” Sousuke cut off abruptly.

_I was taking care of my kid._

_Shit._ Somehow, in the course of flirting with Haruka, he’d managed to forget that he was a packaged deal. There was _no way_ Haruka would want to date him if he knew he had a kid. Who would? Having an obligation to take care of a kid, especially a toddler, was way too much commitment for people who were just casually seeing each other.

But he couldn’t just _lie_ to him. Eventually he’d find out, and Sousuke would wish that he’d told him right off the bat.

So maybe he should just go for it. If he lost out on a beauty like Haruka because of it, well, he’d just have to get over it. Ken was a part of him, and if the person he was dating couldn’t appreciate him, then his chances were better off somewhere else.

Even if the thought of losing Haruka already was really not appealing.

“Because you were what?” Haruka probed when Sousuke had remained silent for too long.

Sousuke swallowed nervously. “…because I was taking care of my kid.”

Haruka’s eyes just about popped out of his head. “You have a _kid?_ Wait, wait, just how old are you?”

“…Twenty-five…” Sousuke muttered, slinking down a little in his chair. “Look, I made some bad decisions when I was younger, but now I have Ken, my pride and joy, so…yeah.”

The prevailing silence was unbearable for Sousuke. He had no idea what Haruka was thinking; he couldn’t read him at all. The barista was just staring blankly at him, as if he was waiting for the punchline. Sousuke wished irrationally he could give him one as he took a sip of his water, in an attempt to break the awkwardness.

“…Can I meet him?”

The completely unexpected answer caused Sousuke to do a spit take on his water. He luckily managed to not spit all over Haruka, which would’ve been the icing on top of the completely fucking up a date cake, and instead spluttered all over himself.

Haruka just continued to stare at him while Sousuke tried to recover. When he felt like he could speak, he choked out, “You…want to meet Ken?”

“Yeah, why not? I’m going to have to meet him if we want to give this a try.” Haruka actually smiled as he reached across the table to cover Sousuke’s hand with his own.

Sousuke’s heart nearly stopped as he turned his wrist to clutch the smaller hand in his own; god he hoped his hands weren’t clammy. He looked up at Haruka shyly, unwilling to admit how much the barista’s smile was destroying him on the inside. Fuck, no one should be allowed to get away with having such a cute smile.

“You really want to date an old dad like me?” Sousuke muttered eventually, averting his gaze. He was having trouble wrapping his brain around the fact that Haruka didn’t at all seem bothered that he had a son.

“You’re not old, Sousuke,” Haruka snorted as he rolled his eyes. Suddenly he had a small smirk on his face. “I think you’re more of a hot dad and, yes, I want to date you.”

Sousuke choked on his own saliva that time. Haruka…thought he was _hot?_ …Ah, to hell with it. Grinning widely, and not giving two fucks about the fact that they were in public, Sousuke leaned over the table and kissed Haruka. Haruka was soon kissing him back, and Sousuke couldn’t help but sigh in content.

He couldn’t even say how long he’d waited for this.

They ended up getting kicked out of the restaurant for apparently indecent public displays of affection; Haruka was pissed about not getting his mackerel, but Sousuke thought it was all worth it as he took Haruka’s hand in his.

 

\--

 

A couple of dates later, Sousuke finally brought Haruka home to introduce him to Ken. The kid, about to enter elementary school next year, had grown into a talker; it had surprised Sousuke, since he really didn’t talk a lot himself. Though, perhaps that was _why_ Ken talked so much – to fill the silence.

For whatever reason, the amount of time he could talk someone’s ear off had gotten way out of hand.

“Papa!!” Ken shouted as he jumped off the couch and ran into Sousuke’s arms. Sousuke kneeled to pick up his son, swinging him around for a moment and eliciting bubbly laughter from the toddler. When they stopped spinning, Ken glanced behind Sousuke and finally noticed Haruka. “Huh? Papa, who’s the blue man?”

Sousuke couldn’t help but snort in laughter at Ken’s description, and he was all out chuckling when Haruka frowned and looked down at his outfit. He was wearing blue jeans and a blue T-shirt with a blue jacket wrapped around his shoulders. Throw in his ocean blue eyes and Ken’s description fit him perfectly.

“Ken, this is Haruka,” Sousuke said as he oriented himself so Ken could look at Haruka better.

“Hi,” Haruka said softly as he stared at Ken. Ken just stared back. Sousuke shuffled uncomfortably; this was the longest his son had stayed quiet since he first started speaking.

The silence persisted; Sousuke was going to say something when Ken suddenly leaned forward eagerly in his arms and just about shouted, “Papa Haruka!!”

Both Sousuke and Haruka startled at the nickname. Sousuke groaned internally; how was he supposed to make Ken understand that Haruka was just his boyfriend, and not his husband, or even that not everyone Sousuke knew was automatically Ken’s father?

“Ken, he’s not—”

“Yeah,” Haruka interrupted before he gestured for Sousuke to hand him Ken. Confused, Sousuke did as he was told and set his son in Haruka’s arms. The barista held the kid up a little bit, smiling softly as Ken giggled. “I’m Papa Haruka.”

“Papa Haruka!” Ken shouted again, laughing happily.

“Haruka…” Sousuke started, gaping at his boyfriend and son smiling together. Just what was going on right now?!

“It must be hard raising him by yourself, right?” Haruka said softly as he let Ken sit on his shoulders. “If I’m going to stick around, I might as well help out.”

Sousuke continued to gape at his boyfriend for a moment, barely comprehending what Haruka was offering. Eventually he processed it, and he couldn’t stop the wide smile that grew on his face. Stepping forward, he wrapped his arms around Haruka’s waist and gave him a light kiss, the smile still burning on his cheeks. When they separated, Sousuke rested his forehead on Haruka’s. “Haruka, I think I love you.”

Haruka suddenly smiled again. “I love you too, Sousuke.”

Sousuke’s heart soared in his chest. Before he could lean in for another kiss, however, Ken was suddenly smacking his head with his small hands. Startled, Sousuke looked up at his son; he’d almost forgotten he was there for a moment.

“Where’s my kiss, Papa?!” Ken pouted, crossing his arms cutely over Haruka’s head.

“So you want a kiss, huh?” Grinning, Sousuke leaned up and blew a raspberry on Ken’s cheek.

As his son squealed, and Haruka quietly chuckled in his arms, Sousuke felt incredibly happy. After all, he was with the two people he loved most: his family.


	4. Tip of the Iceberg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haru told Sousuke he didn't like cold weather, but his boyfriend just never listened to him, did he?

Haru had never really liked winter.

It was too cold – he had to don several layers just to walk down the block to get food from the supermarket, which was _way_ too much effort, and even with all of those layers he was still cold. He had to turn the thermostat way too high just to be warm in his own house, and that got expensive after a while. At least he had a big lug named Sousuke to keep him warm at night, but it was still too damn cold.

And, worst of all, it was too cold to go swimming.

All Haru wanted to do during the winter was coop up in his bathtub with the water practically scalding and never leave his house until it got warm again.

But, unfortunately for him, this year he was dating the only person in the world who absolutely loved winter.

“Haruka, we should go somewhere,” Sousuke said when they were lying in bed together that morning. Haru was practically attached to his boyfriend’s side and buried under their comforter, uninclined to poke even a toe out and face the cold.

“No,” he mumbled stubbornly.

“Come on Haruka, you’ve been cooped up in the house for days,” Sousuke pressed, nudging Haru’s cheek with his elbow. “Besides, it’s snowing!”

“I hate snow,” Haru spat, curling tighter against Sousuke’s side.

His boyfriend, annoyingly, laughed. “You’re just saying that.”

But he wasn’t; Haru hated the snow too. He hated how it got in his shoes and soaked his feet with freezing cold water; he hated that the ice made it impossible to go anywhere without slipping; he hated that his legs were so short that he had trouble walking in the snow if it got too deep.

And plus it was cold.

“Just a short walk, then?” Sousuke was still trying. Haru had to give him credit for not giving up immediately like Makoto tended to do.

Haru peeked out grumpily through the comforter. “Will you stop hounding me if I do?”

He didn’t really like his boyfriend’s wide grin. “I won’t bother you for a whole week if you come with me right now.”

A week, huh? Haru had to admit that was pretty tempting; if he only had to be outside for half an hour or so, and in return got to stay in the warm house for a week, that didn’t sound like such a bad deal. Sighing, Haru sat up in the bed, the comforter still wrapped around his shoulders.

“Fine.”

Sousuke’s smile of triumph almost changed his mind. Almost.

 

\--

 

Haru was freezing.

“I can’t believe you get cold so easily,” Sousuke laughed as they walked down the street in the snow. He nudged Haru’s elbow teasingly. “You look like a tiny blue marshmallow.”

“Shut up,” Haru huffed, tucking his face further into his scarf.

Okay, maybe he _did_ have on too many layers: he was wearing two pairs of long underwear and his swimsuit underneath his jeans, a sweater, a sweatshirt, and two jackets, his hands were covered in gloves and mittens, he had at least two scarves wrapped around his neck, and a pair of warm dolphin earmuffs over his ears. And yet, despite the cascade of warm layers, he was _still_ cold.

Meanwhile his boyfriend was just walking around in boots, one pair of jeans, a sweater, a big snow jacket, and a scarf. He, needless to say, did not look like a marshmallow.

Haru tried not to be so bitter about it and just focused on where they were going.

Sousuke was just leading them around town, walking aimlessly, which Haru realized too late was a _terrible_ idea; following a directionless loser like his boyfriend would just end up with them lost in the woods somewhere. Or in the small town that even a tourist would be able to navigate, let alone someone who lived there.

After a few minutes, Haru stopped abruptly and turned to his boyfriend. They’d been walking around for longer than just a “short walk” and he was definitely not amused. “You have no idea where we are, do you?”

“Sure I do, the store is right over…there…” Sousuke muttered, turning around in a confused circle as he tried to locate the store that Haru knew was on the other side of town.

Haru rolled his eyes. “You’re lucky I’m not an idiot and know my way around Iwatobi.”

“Okay look, just because I don’t have a good sense of directions doesn’t mean I’m an idiot,” Sousuke bit back as he followed Haru back in the direction of their house.

“It does when you’ve lived here for almost a year,” Haru snorted, shoving his hands into his pockets as he stomped through the snow angrily. All he wanted was to get home and take a warm bath.

However he soon stopped abruptly, turning to look at the area he was just about to pass. Sousuke nearly crashed into his back, but Haru barely noticed; his eyes were glued to one of his favorite parts of town. He’d forgotten they were so close to it.

The town fountain.

Running towards it suddenly, Haru struggled to strip himself of his many layers, throwing the clothes behind him without a second thought. Swimming in the town fountain was one of his favorite past times and he did it whenever he walked by here. His mind was on auto pilot as he continued to sprint for the fountain.

“Haruka!” Sousuke called after him, but he already sounded far away. Not that Haru was paying any attention to him anyway. “Haruka, wait; you can’t—!”

But it was too late. Finally wearing nothing but his swimsuit, and not even noticing the chilly air biting his skin, Haru leaped into the fountain.

Only to crash through ice and plunge into freezing cold water, as the entire fountain had been frozen over.

Haru realized his mistake too late, of course, and he sat on the bottom of the fountain, the icy water surrounding him shocking him into immobility. Soon his teeth were chattering and it was so cold against his bare skin that it burned, but still he couldn’t move. If it wasn’t for Sousuke running towards him and pulling him out, draping all of his clothes back over him, Haru might’ve sat there to freeze to death.

He really hated winter.

 

\--

 

“You _idiot_ what were you thinking?” Sousuke chided him later once they’d made it home.

Sousuke had rushed them home, apparently now remembering where they lived in his sense of urgency to get Haru somewhere warm, and had dunked him in a hot bath. Haru had sat in the tub, shivering, the cold seeming to have seeped all the way through to his bones. Eventually the warmth of the tub reached him and he gradually stopped shivering.

When he felt warm enough, Sousuke had carried him out of the bath and into the living room, where he’d set out an electric blanket on their couch. He set Haru down on the couch before disappearing into the kitchen. Haru obediently crawled under the blanket, sighing in relief as the warmth continued to seep into him. Sousuke eventually returned with a cup of hot chocolate, which he handed to Haru before crawling under the blanket behind him and pressing his warm body to Haru’s still cold one.

It was only then that Haru began to really feel warm again, and he pressed back into Sousuke as he sipped at his hot chocolate.

“I can’t believe you,” Sousuke was still ranting. “You _hate_ the cold, and yet you strip pretty much everything off before cannonballing into a frozen fountain. Are you completely insane??”

“I forgot it would be frozen,” Haru muttered, his ear tips turning pink in embarrassment.

“What do you think ‘the temperature is below freezing’ means?” Sousuke snorted before he rolled his right shoulder irritably. “And now my shoulder’s acting up because I had to carry you all the way back here so you wouldn’t freeze to death!”

“Sorry…” Haru muttered, slight guilt touching him. He was indignant about the whole matter, but he really hadn’t meant to cause Sousuke pain, especially when his shoulder was just starting to heal again. Even so, he turned a pointed glare to his boyfriend. “But I told you I didn’t want to go outside.”

“Well fuck, I guess I know better now,” Sousuke sighed as he rolled his eyes, but he let the matter drop after that.

Haru finished his hot chocolate, feeling much warmer than before, and laid down fully on the couch, pulling the electric blanket up to his chin. Sousuke laid behind him after he’d turned on the TV to a cheesy American Christmas film for background noise, wrapping his arms around Haru and pressing his face into Haru’s hair. Haru hummed in content, curling back into his boyfriend, and decided he was warm enough to take a nap now.

There were reasons he preferred being inside on a cold day.


	5. Breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sousuke wrecks his shoulder in a later timeline, and he's at risk of losing everything he's worked for.

Sousuke felt the moment his future cracked.

Up until that point, his life was going better than he could’ve ever hoped for. He’d gotten into the college of his dreams, swam competitively on their team for all four years he was there, met and fell in love with his current boyfriend Haruka, and was now swimming professionally. All of his dreams had been met (and Rin’s dream for him as well, with the whole love thing). He and Haru had their own apartment now and they practiced together often since they were both pro swimmers.

Life was good.

Too good.

He hadn’t thought anything of it when he felt the first twinge of pain in his right shoulder. Muscles had weird spasms all the time; it was nothing serious. He could keep up his strenuous practices.

After a week, the twinge of pain turned into a low, constant burning. Every stroke promised the hint of pain, but still Sousuke kept swimming. An important race was coming up, and he couldn’t afford to take time off now. He figured that if his shoulder was still bothering him when the race was over, he’d go see someone about it. But, for the moment, he was just inclined to ignore it.

Later, every fiber of his being would wish he hadn’t.

He didn’t even make it to the race.

He and Haru were practicing alone the day it happened. They’d been racing; Haru swimming free, Sousuke swimming fly. Though it wasn’t a common practice in competitive swimming, they often raced each other doing different strokes because Haru refused to swim anything but freestyle and Sousuke wanted to practice more than just his crawl.

The pain in his shoulder was an all-out burn now. Every stroke he was fighting the pain, forcing his shoulder to move despite how much it screamed at him.

And then something just snapped. His arm spasmed so badly that he couldn’t even draw it out of the water for another stroke, causing him to flop ungracefully on the surface of the water. Gasping, and inhaling some water by accident, Sousuke was forced to stop; his feet touched the bottom in the middle of the pool as he grasped his burning shoulder. The pain was fierce; he could feel it throbbing and the burn every time he attempted to move his arm was so strong it brought tears to his eyes.

What the hell happened?!

It didn’t take long for Haru to notice that Sousuke had stopped swimming. Sousuke barely processed his boyfriend swimming over to him, but he did process his voice and how it tremored slightly with concern. “Sousuke? What happened? Are you okay?”

“I don’t fucking know!” Sousuke snapped, the pain and frustration making his voice louder than he’d intended. He could tell he was shaking and his mind seemed to be wrapped in panic. “I was just swimming, and something snapped, _it hurts so bad_ , I can’t move my arm, Haruka, _I can’t move my fucking arm!!_ ”

“Sousuke, calm down,” Haru murmured gently, moving closer to him and pushing the hand grasping his shoulder out of the way. “Let me see.”

Sousuke heard his boyfriend inhale air sharply and he could barely bring himself to look. But he did, and he just about passed out.

His shoulder was the ugliest red Sousuke had ever seen, the skin obviously inflamed. When Haru pressed his palm gently to the area, Sousuke cried out as pain shot to every single one of his nerves; it hurt so bad that some tears squeezed out of his eyes. Haru immediately withdrew his hand.

“What happened, Haruka, why is it like that?” Sousuke babbled hysterically, unable to take his eyes from the inflamed area now that he’d looked.

“I don’t know, but the doctor will.” Haru took his hand and led him to the edge of the pool, assisting him to get out. Sousuke found that his arm was absolutely useless outside of the water too; he couldn’t move it at all.

Panic gripped his chest like a vice. What if he could never move his arm again? But the injury would heal, wouldn’t it? It had to, it just had to…

Sousuke was in complete hysterics by the time Haru got him in to see the doctor. He was sitting on a hospital bed with his shirt off as the doctor examined his shoulder. Every touch hurt, every movement burned. Sousuke was sweating and panting so hard from the pain at the end of his examination that the doctor felt inclined to give him a glass of water before delivering his diagnosis.

“Mr. Yamazaki, you have a severe case of impingement syndrome,” the doctor said once Sousuke had calmed down and Haru had come into the room. “How long have you been feeling pain?”

“…Almost a month, I think…” Sousuke mumbled sheepishly. He could feel Haru’s hard gaze on him, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at his boyfriend.

“You should have come in the minute you felt pain; a tendon rubbing directly on your shoulder blade is serious. Repetitive motion only makes it worse.”

“Will it heal, doctor?” Sousuke butted in, clenching his fists tightly. He didn’t need the doctor to tell him that; he knew now he should’ve come in earlier. But it hadn’t been too bad until the last couple of days! He was going to come in eventually; how was he supposed to know it had been the beginnings of something serious??

“With lots of physical therapy, maybe, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up; the tendon and shoulder blade both are almost rubbed raw,” the doctor said quietly, perhaps he was trying to be gentle, but no matter his tone his words were destroying Sousuke’s world. “You’ll probably never be able to swim again, Mr. Yamazaki.”

Sousuke was somehow able to hold it in throughout all of the paperwork he had to fill out, through his appointment set ups with the physical therapist. He was able to hold it in as Haru drove him home, even as he felt his boyfriend glancing over at him multiple times, could tell that he wanted to say something. He was able to hold it in when they entered their apartment and sat down the couch. He didn’t know how long he would’ve lasted if Haru hadn’t acted as a catalyst.

He sat next to him on the couch so that their knees were touching, his upper body turned to face Sousuke. “Sousuke, are you okay?”

And those three simple words were all it took for Sousuke to break down completely. He started sobbing uncontrollably as he folded into himself, his world cracking around him. He could never swim again?? What was he supposed to do?! Swimming was all he knew how to do; it was the only thing he was good at. It was his connection to Haru, and Rin; what would he do without it? _Who_ was he without it?

Eventually he felt Haru’s arms wrap around him, careful to avoid his right shoulder, and Sousuke responded immediately by wrapping his arms around his boyfriend’s waist as he buried his face in his chest and sobbed. Haru’s fingers reached up to draw gently through his hair and Sousuke inched closer to him, seeking the familiar warmth.

“What am I going to do, Haruka?” Sousuke murmured eventually, his voice cracked, uneven, and muffled by his boyfriend’s sweatshirt.

“You’re going to go to physical therapy until your shoulder gets better,” Haru replied quietly, and Sousuke couldn’t help but feel a spark of anger.

“ _Of course_ I’m going to do that; I mean right now! What am I supposed to do while I can’t swim? And what if I can never swim again? What the fuck am I going to do?!”

“Don’t shout at me,” Haru warned, his brows furrowing slightly.

“Well I’m sorry my world’s falling apart!” Sousuke yelled back, anxious bile rising in his throat. He didn’t know why he was getting angry at Haru, and something deep inside of him didn’t want to, but he was so confused and upset that his brain was on auto pilot. He was just roaring whatever came to mind, unable to even think of the consequences, stuck in the now with no view forward. “You would be shouting too if you found out all of your dreams, _everything you’ve worked for your entire life_ , is all for nothing because of a stupid injury!”

“If you’d gone to the doctor a month earlier, your world wouldn’t be falling apart, so stop acting like a big baby Sousuke.” Haru’s eyes blazed with anger, his words dripping with venom.

They stung, badly. Sousuke flinched, even as he felt more blind anger concentrating in his stomach. He was getting geared up to shout something else, something that may have started a crack in their relationship, but Haru grabbed his face in his hands suddenly and forcefully turned him to look at him.

“Listen to me, Sousuke. I get it that this is hard, I get that you’re probably just panicking right now. But getting angry and cursing the past isn’t going to get you anywhere. So here’s what you’re going to do Sousuke: you’re going to go to physical therapy, you’re going to find some part-time job, with no heavy-lifting, to keep you busy, and you’re going to do the exercises the doctor prescribed to you. I’ll be with you every step of the way; I’ll support you if you fall. We’ll get through this. Your world hasn’t ended yet, not if you keep trying.”

Sousuke blinked at his boyfriend, letting the words wash over him. As they did, he could feel the tears welling up in his eyes; he felt stupid for getting angry earlier. After all, his boyfriend was right: he couldn’t give up. He refused to go down without a fight, and if Haru was beside him then he felt like he could do anything. His world wasn’t over because he still had Haru.

He had no idea what he’d do without him.

“Thank you, Haruka,” Sousuke murmured, his tears breaking free again.

Haru just smiled, the soft one that always melted Sousuke’s heart, and continued to hold Sousuke as he cried.


	6. Ocean Eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sousuke thinks he’s finally gone crazy when his next police job is to arrest a streaking merman.

That day, Sousuke realized that he had most definitely gone crazy.

“Officer Yamazaki,” a voice buzzed over the car intercom. “Come in, Officer Yamazaki.”

“Yeah, I’m here,” Sousuke replied as he picked up his walky-talky. He was driving around on his rounds and had just been about to fall asleep before he was buzzed in. The café he frequented had been closed that day, meaning Sousuke hadn’t gotten his much needed coffee, and after four uneventful hours of patrolling it was hard to keep his eyes open. He was almost desperate for the news as he eagerly awaited his fellow cop’s reply.

“You’re close to the beach right now, right?”

“Yeah, I am.” Sousuke turned left at the next light, heading towards the beach. He could guess where this call was going.

“Okay, good. Head there immediately; we have reports of, er, something strange.”

Sousuke raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by ‘strange’?”

“Well…witness reports state that there’s a…streaking merman running along the beach.”

Sousuke nearly crashed into the car in front of him that had stopped at a stoplight; luckily he hit his brakes in time. He sat there in stunned silence, blinking, realizing that he must have heard wrong. “Excuse me?”

“A streaking merman; it’s got to be some weirdo in a costume, but just check it out, okay?”

“…Roger that,” Sousuke said after a few stunned moments of silence, but the other officer had already hung up.

…A streaking merman?! What the hell?! Of all of the weird things that Sousuke had dealt with on the police force, this one had to take the cake. First of all, mermen weren’t even _real_ ; second of all, why would some guy pretend to be a merman and streak along the beach?! It had to be a nutcase, and Sousuke could only hope the guy wouldn’t be too difficult to detain.

Either that or Sousuke had finally gone crazy from way too many hours spent on the police force.

He wasn’t sure which situation he preferred.

Sousuke pulled into the parking lot in front of the beach and stuck his head out the window of the car. He couldn’t see anything yet, no one was obviously running down the beach naked, and Sousuke could only hope it would stay that way.

Though of course he’d have to get out and investigate.

When Sousuke stepped out of the car, he noticed that the beach was surprisingly vacant; only a few people were sunbathing, swimming, and playing volleyball despite the beautiful day. First streaking mermen, now almost vacant beaches on a sunny day…

Things just kept getting weirder and weirder.

As he walked along the beach, and saw nothing suspicious, Sousuke started to think that they’d gotten a prank call. And really, that made more sense than anything else; he didn’t know why he’d started to take it seriously in the first place. Chuckling to himself and feeling slightly embarrassed that for a moment he’d believed the witness report, Sousuke turned around to walk back towards his car.

That’s when he saw him.

A rather short, pale man with jet black hair had approached the people playing volleyball and appeared to be saying something to them. He couldn’t have said more than two words before the people were throwing their beach ball at his head and running away from him screaming. At first, Sousuke couldn’t fathom what had brought on the strange behavior.

However, as soon as the people had fled, he could clearly see that the guy who’d approached them was buck naked.

Sousuke sighed. Okay, so parts of the report had been true. There was someone walking around naked, though who knew where the idea of him being a merman came from.

People sure came up with crazy stuff under panic and fear.

The guy was still standing at the abandoned volleyball net when Sousuke reached him. He didn’t move at all as the police officer approached him; he just stared. His eyes were a deep ocean blue, and they kind of unnerved Sousuke the more he looked into them. However, they provided a convenient distraction that prevented him from staring at certain body parts that the man _should_ have covered.

Man, the police force should _not_ have sent someone gay to take care of this.

“Sir,” Sousuke called as he finally reached the naked man. The guy really was short; he barely came up to Sousuke’s shoulder. “Are you aware that it’s indecent to walk around without any clothes on?”

The man tilted his head to the side, as if he hadn’t understood what Sousuke had said. “…I don’t own clothes.”

He had an accent; Sousuke couldn’t place it, as he’d never heard anything like it before. It almost reminded him of crashing waves on the shore, though as soon as the thought crossed his mind he wondered how that was even possible.

Shaking his head, he focused on what the man had just said as he stared at him incredulously. “What do you mean you don’t own any clothes?”

“I don’t know what clothes are,” the man replied, his head still tilted to the side. He was really cute and pretty, and Sousuke had to keep internally kicking himself to make sure he paid attention to the conversation. “So I would guess I don’t have any.”

Sousuke just stared at him. Did this guy live under a rock? How did he not know what clothes were?! Couldn’t he tell that everyone around him didn’t walk around buck naked like him???

The police officer decided he didn’t have the energy to deal with that. “Then what are you doing walking around here?”

“I’m completing a dare.” The man was blushing now, and he was so cute it was causing Sousuke to blush as well. “My friend Nagisa dared me to come up on land and talk to a human.”

…Wait, what?

There were several things wrong with what the man had just said. First of all, he’d said ‘come up on land’ as if he didn’t live on land. Where did he live, then? The ocean?? And then… ‘talk to a human’. That implied that he _wasn’t_ one. Sousuke looked the guy up and down, blushing as he accidentally scanned over his nether regions. He didn’t see anything at all that was unhuman like, so…what the hell was he if he wasn’t human?!

_A streaking merman._

…There was no way this guy was actually a merman, right?

“Wait, hold on,” Sousuke said, finally finding his tongue. His mind was reeling and he needed to clear this up soon so he wouldn’t pass out. “Where are you from?”

“The ocean,” the man replied, as if it was nothing.

Sousuke just about fell over. This guy lived in the _ocean?_ “And you said you’re not a human…so what are you?”

“A merman.”

Sousuke really was about to pass out until it occurred to him; this guy was just pulling his leg. He almost laughed at the realization. Man, he must be tired if he was stupid enough to believe what this guy was saying; it was so _obvious_ he was just lying, to perhaps try and escape custody over the fact that he was streaking on the beach.

Though one would think he’d try to come up with something better than being a merman.

“Yeah, right,” Sousuke snorted. “And I can fly.”

The man stared at him, wide-eyed. “You can fly?”

“What?! No!” Sousuke retorted, starting to feel a little annoyed now. Why was this guy continuing to keep up his act when he knew Sousuke knew he was a phony? Well, whatever the reason; the police officer just wanted to hurry up and take him into custody and forget this ever happened. Pulling out his notebook, Sousuke started to jot down a few notes. “Okay, look, I’m going to take you back to police headquarters for questioning, but first can I have your name for my report?”

“Haruka.” He could practically feel the ‘merman’s’ gaze on him. “I can prove it to you, if you don’t believe me.”

“Prove what?” Sousuke said absent-mindedly, focused on writing ‘Haruka’ and distracted thinking that it was an absolutely beautiful name for an absolutely beautiful (but crazy) person.

“That I’m a merman.”

That got Sousuke’s attention. Glaring at the guy, he crossed his arms and tapped his pen on his forearm. “Oh, sure you can.”

“I can. Watch.” And with that Haruka walked over to the shoreline and sat down in the water.

Sousuke continued to glare skeptically; what did this guy think he was trying to do? Then, however, he noticed something that made his eyes nearly pop out of his head.

Haruka’s legs were… _changing_. His legs drew closer together before actually _fusing_ together. His feet shrunk and reformed, turning into something resembling a fish tail. While this was all going on, blue scales had started forming on his waist and spread all the way down to the edge of his now apparent tail fin. When the process was done, Haruka had a sparkling blue tail fin that flopped lazily as he leaned on his elbows in the water.

Sousuke’s mouth was wide open. What the hell had he just witnessed?! Running towards Haruka, the police officer fell down on his knees as he glanced up and down the tail.

“Told you,” Haruka said, his voice almost gleeful.

“This has to be fake…” Sousuke muttered, reaching out a hand to draw along Haruka’s scales. But he’d seen the transformation, he knew; it was absolutely real. He glanced up at Haruka in absolute awe.

“You know, Mr. Police Officer, rubbing my scales like that is considered an intimate gesture where I come from,” Haruka teased, snorting as Sousuke quickly withdrew his hand, a dark blush on his face.

“S-sorry,” Sousuke stuttered, embarrassment filling his chest. “I-I didn’t know…”

“It’s fine,” Haruka laughed, and it had to be the most beautiful sound Sousuke had ever heard. Suddenly the merman was touching his cheek, drawing his head up so that their faces were only inches apart. “You’re cute, so I don’t mind.”

Sousuke flushed even darker than before, his pulse pounding in his throat at how close they were. Without even thinking, he leaned forward and pressed his lips softly to Haruka’s. At first the police officer worried that this was a foreign touch in Haruka’s world, so he wouldn’t understand the significance of the gesture, but soon the merman was pressing hungrily back against him. Sousuke felt relieved as he deepened the kiss; he was glad kissing at least was universal.

When they parted, Sousuke was absolutely breathless. Haruka seemed to be too, as his face was cutely flushed. Sousuke raised a hand to gently caress his cheek as he caught his breath.

“Thanks for talking to me,” Haruka murmured, leaning forward again so that his breath was ghosting over Sousuke’s lips as he talked. “Now I can go back and prove Nagisa that I could do it.”

“Do you have to go right now?” Sousuke asked desperately, panic rising in his chest. He didn’t want this beautiful creature to leave yet.

“I can’t breathe as well when I’ve been on land for a couple of hours.” Haruka pressed their lips together again gently, apologetically. “Sorry.”

Sousuke felt like his chest was getting crushed. Who knew if he’d ever see Haruka again? Even if he went to the beach every day from now on, there was no guarantee that the merman would come back. He might live far from the shore, and it would be too much effort for him to come up all the time.

Overwhelming sadness rose in his chest. But maybe it was for the best…

When they parted from the kiss, Haruka swam back into the water slowly, leaving Sousuke on the shore staring after him.

“I hope to see you again soon, Mr. Police Officer,” Haruka said as he swam into deeper waters, submerging slowly until his head was the only thing still out of the water.

“Sousuke,” the police officer breathed, his throat tight and his chest giddy with emotion. “My name’s Sousuke.”

“Alright, Sousuke.” Haruka smiled before disappearing into the water.

Sousuke kneeled there at the edge of the water for what seemed like years, just staring at the spot where Haruka had disappeared. He was mesmerized, his thoughts filled with ocean blue eyes and soft lips that had sort of tasted like mackerel. He hoped irrationally that he would see Haruka again, even though he knew nothing good would come out of it. After all, it would be stupid to fall in love with a creature that lived primarily in the water.

Shaking his head, Sousuke unrooted himself, stood, and walked back to his car.

He really had gone crazy.


	7. Loser

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sousuke can never win.

**Mornings**

The second the alarm went off, Sousuke leapt out of bed.

It was Monday; the start of a new week and, therefore, the renewed chance to win this time. He hurried around their bedroom, grabbing his uniform and his toothbrush, before sprinting for the bathroom.

Finally – today would be the day that Sousuke made it into the bathroom before Haruka.

Slamming open the door to the bathroom, Sousuke strutted inside, proud of himself and his accomplishment. This lasted for about two seconds before he glanced over at the bathtub and just gaped.

Haruka was already sitting in there, the water high and steaming, as if it _wasn’t_ six in the morning. The toy dolphin was floating around nonchalantly and Haru was submerged up to his nose as he stared at Sousuke. Sousuke stared back, flabbergasted.

…How the _fuck_ had Haru gotten in here first?!

“What the hell, Haruka?!” Sousuke yelled, slamming his toothbrush down on their sink. “How are you in here already?!”

Sousuke’s annoyance just grew as he saw the teasing smirk on his boyfriend’s face. “You’re going to have to wake up earlier than that if you want to beat me.”

Growling, Sousuke stomped back out of the bathroom, grouchily accepting his defeat. Dammit, he’d been so sure of his victory this time! Though really, how many weeks would it take him to realize that Haru would do anything to get into the bathroom before him, just to annoy him with how long he took his baths?

…Another week, probably.

 

**Groceries  
**

Sousuke pushed the grocery cart down the aisle, walking briskly as he scanned the meat selection for the best piece of pork. Finding one quickly, he threw it in the cart before practically running from the meat department. He could hear Haruka calling out to him, but he just walked faster.

He didn’t have to look to know his boyfriend had as much mackerel as he could carry, and hell if was going to let him put it in the cart.

He was tired of having mackerel all the time, and this week he was putting his foot down.

Sousuke raced through the rest of the aisles, throwing everything they needed into the cart as fast as he possibly could before Haru could catch up to him. He was lucky his boyfriend was so bad at running, or he would’ve been doomed long ago. He was also lucky that they’d stopped buying things on the top shelves so he didn’t bust his shoulder and lose (like he’d done once before).

He managed to make it all the way to the checkout stand and into the car before Haru caught up to him. He looked miffed as he climbed into the passenger’s seat, empty-handed. Sousuke grinned.

“Looks like I win this time, Haruka.”

However, he was proved wrong as soon as he got home and unpacked the groceries. At the bottom of the bags, to Sousuke’s absolute disbelief, sat three large selections of mackerel.

“Are you fucking kidding me?! How did you manage to do that?!” Sousuke yelled, gaping at his boyfriend disbelievingly.

Haru just smirked and leaned up to kiss Sousuke’s cheek. “I couldn’t let you forget something so important.”

Sousuke shook with barely constrained frustration as Haru took the mackerel out of the bag himself and stored them away in the freezer.

Guess it was mackerel for dinner again.

 

**Water**

Sousuke and Haruka were walking down the street hand-in-hand, having just come back from a weekly meet-up with Rin and Makoto, when Sousuke suddenly felt a tug on his hand.

Looking down at his boyfriend, he saw that Haruka was looking longingly into the distance, his slow steps in a different direction than Sousuke was walking causing the tug. When Sousuke looked up, following his gaze, he sighed heavily as he spotted the town fountain in the distance. One would think he’d realize not to go by here anymore (even though he could never quite remember where it was).

“No, Haruka, we are _not_ going through this again!” Sousuke reprimanded as he adjusted his grip so that he was constraining Haru against his chest. “You almost froze to death the last time!”

“It’s not winter anymore, Sousuke,” was Haru’s only reply as he continued to push against Sousuke’s grip.

Sousuke only tightened his hold. “You’re missing the point! You can’t just rip off all of your clothes and streak every time you see water! You’ll get arrested!”

Haruka turned and stared right at him. “Then arrest me, officer.”

Sousuke was so taken aback by his boyfriend’s response that his grip loosened, just barely. Haru immediately took advantage of it and ripped out of Sousuke’s grasp, running at high speed for the fountain. Clothes scattered the ground in his path and Sousuke couldn’t even blink before his boyfriend had cannonballed into the fountain.

Sighing in frustration, Sousuke followed his boyfriend, picking up his clothes as he went. When he reached the fountain, he glared down at Haru, who was floating peacefully in the water.

“Why do you always do this?” Sousuke sighed, crossing his arms.

“Because you’re too weak to beat me,” Haru replied, squirting a stream of water into Sousuke’s face. “Makoto is so much better at this than you are.”

Sousuke’s eye twitched, but all he did was prove his boyfriend wrong by wrestling him out of the fountain.

 

**Sleeping**

Sousuke woke up in the middle of the night freezing cold.

Shivering violently, he squinted through the darkness, trying to figure out what was amiss. Though, really, he probably should’ve guessed immediately.

Haruka had stolen all of the blankets again. He was curled in a ball at the other end of the bed, the covers wrapped around him in a giant cocoon. Sousuke huffed and rolled towards him, pulling on the blanket in an attempt to unwrap them a little. His boyfriend always managed to get immensely tangled in the blankets, but eventually Sousuke was able to peel back some and he pressed against Haru’s back as he draped the blanket over himself.

Sighing, content and warm, Sousuke fell asleep again.

When he woke again, he was still cold.

Groaning, Sousuke peeled his eyes open to see what had happened this time. Haru had stolen all the blankets again, but this time it was worse; he’d kicked half of the blankets off the bed, the rest were tightly curled around him, and, as if to purposefully set Sousuke off, he had his cold feet pressed against Sousuke’s leg.

“Goddammit, Haruka,” Sousuke grumbled as he got out of bed to pick up the blankets.

When he attempted to get back in bed, however, he noticed that Haruka had spread out to take up the entire bed.

…Okay, _that_ was the last straw. Sousuke leapt into bed, startling Haru awake, and burrowed under his boyfriend’s cocoon. He then draped the blankets he’d picked up from the ground over the both of him before wrapping his arms tightly around Haruka and pulling him snugly to his chest.

Haru grumbled and squirmed, pounding lightly on Sousuke’s chest in protest. “What are you doing, Sousuke? Let go of me.”

“No way,” Sousuke replied, leaning down to kiss Haru’s nose lightly. “I’m done waking up cold all the time.”

Haruka huffed, but dropped the subject and just burrowed further into Sousuke’s chest.

The next morning Sousuke woke up on the floor, with all of the blankets still on the bed with Haruka.

 

**Movies**

The minute Sousuke got home, he threw his jacket in the closet before sprinting for the kitchen. To his satisfaction, Haru wasn’t there yet, and he quickly threw a bag of microwavable popcorn into the microwave. As that was going, he ran back out into the living room, snatched up the TV remote, and flipped the channel to his favorite detective movie.

He’d heard that the movie was going to play at this specific time and channel today, and he’d been determined to get it on before Haru could come downstairs from painting and turn on some stupid sea creature documentary.

The bell of the microwave dinged, causing Sousuke to run back into the kitchen. He grabbed the largest bowl they had before pouring the popcorn into it; when that was done, he ran back to the living room, plopped down on the couch, and started munching as he turned his attention to the movie.

Haru came downstairs two seconds later.

“You’re home already?” he asked, looking surprised. Sousuke grinned widely at the small pout he saw on his boyfriend’s face and stuck his tongue out at him.

“Yup, I got home early so I could pick the TV channel before you!”

Haruka almost scowled before he prowled around the living room, obviously looking for the remote so he could change the channel. Sousuke, however, just laughed loudly; he’d already hidden the remote in their bedroom. When his boyfriend came near the couch, Sousuke latched onto him and pulled him onto his lap, continuing to laugh as Haru let out a surprised yelp.

“And I’m not going to let you change the channel, either,” he growled playfully into Haruka’s ear, wrapping his arms tightly around his boyfriend’s waist.

“Whatever, I wanted to watch this anyway.” Haru pouted, crossing his arms stubbornly.

“Sure, sure, you’re just a sore loser!” Sousuke laughed, hugging Haruka tighter as he nuzzled his neck affectionately.

Haru huffed. “Says the one who always loses.”

Sousuke just grinned and pressed a kiss to Haru’s skin before turning his attention back to his favorite movie. Man, this was so worth it; he’d finally won something, and that was an accomplishment he would never let Haruka forget.


	8. Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sousuke really should know better by now, when it comes to Haruka and water.

Sousuke, in every sense, should know better by now.

“Haruka, we don’t know those people.”

The police officer, as per usual, had his arms wrapped tightly around Haru, confining the smaller man to his chest. His boyfriend was fighting against him, rather strongly this time, and Sousuke thought that he must really be desperate. Sousuke had gotten better and better at constraining Haru, as water was really _everywhere_ in Iwatobi, so it wasn’t a surprise that his boyfriend was actually trying for once. Usually Sousuke understood a little bit where Haru came from, but _this_ : this was just ridiculous.

“Doesn’t matter.” Haru pouted as he turned a slight glare to Sousuke.

Sousuke glared back and tightened his grip on his boyfriend. “It _does_ matter; you can’t just jump in there with a bunch of strangers! They’ll probably call the cops!”

“Well, you _are_ the cops, so you’ll back me up, right?” Haru was tugging harder on the right side, causing Sousuke to grit his teeth as he struggled to keep his grip. Now his boyfriend was trying to take advantage of his bad shoulder? How was he really this desperate?! He probably just wanted to mortifyingly embarrass Sousuke…

“Haruka, you’re missing the point!” Sousuke huffed in frustration. “Besides, I’m off-duty.”

“I will be free, Sousuke.”

“How does _this_ make you free?! It just makes you a fucking weirdo!” Sousuke growled. Haru just continued to struggle.

People were looking at them now. Several people had walked down the street past them, sending them weird glances as they went, and their argument was even starting to attract the attention of the people whose party Haruka wanted to ruin. Sousuke frowned, glowering back at the people who looked at them strangely. Haru owed him big time for making him go through this shit.

“Look, Haruka, let’s compromise,” Sousuke said, struggling to keep his voice down. “If we walk away quietly now, I’ll let you take as long as you want in the bath for a whole week.”

“You have yet to stop me from taking as long as I want in the bath, so no,” Haru replied easily, his eyes still locked on his target.

Sousuke tried again. “If we walk away quietly now, I’ll pay for the next couple of trips to the pool.”

“We share the same bank account, Sousuke.”

“If we walk away quietly now, I won’t hold you back from water for an entire week!” Sousuke practically shouted, starting to become desperate. He wasn’t sure how long his hold on his boyfriend would last.

Haru suddenly turned a grin to him, and the completely uncharacteristic expression shocked Sousuke enough to make him loosen his grip slightly. “If I said yes, then that would start…now.”

And with that Haru ripped himself out of Sousuke’s arms and sprinted across the yard. Sousuke held his arm out uselessly to his quickly retreating boyfriend, in some vain attempt to stop him, but it was too late. Groaning, the police officer covered his face with his hands, an embarrassed blush quickly spreading across his cheeks. He couldn’t watch this.

He couldn’t watch his boyfriend jump into a kiddy pool full of children they didn’t know.

He continued not to look, even as he heard the screams of little girls and boys. He continued not to look, even as he heard parents shouting and a dog barking. He continued not to look, even as he heard loud proclamations of ‘who are you?!’ and ‘what the hell are you doing?!’. And he continued not to look, even as he heard doors slamming and angry grumblings.

It was only when it was silent that Sousuke removed his hands and looked around to survey the damage.

The yard was completely empty now. Well, almost empty. The previously occupied picnic tables were evacuated, the adults having apparently herded the children as well as the food back into the house. Sousuke was honestly surprised they’d chosen to go back into their house to continue their party instead of forcing Haru to get out of the pool or call the cops.

His fucking boyfriend was lucky, this time.

Trekking across the yard, Sousuke walked up to the only person who was still there. Haruka was sitting in the kiddy pool with his knees pulled to his chin, a content look on his face despite the fact that the water barely went above his feet. He was only wearing his swimsuit, and Sousuke couldn’t help but wonder how that had looked to the children; a scary stranger sprinting full speed at them, stripping off clothes as he went.

Sousuke couldn’t help but snort. That actually sounded hilarious.

But still.

“Well, was it worth it?” Sousuke asked sarcastically as he stood by the kiddy pool, crossing his arms as he frowned down at his boyfriend.

“Yeah, though the water’s a little warm,” Haru replied, a small smile on his face.

Sousuke rolled his eyes. “You do realize you’re probably sitting in some kid’s pee, right?”

Haru just shrugged. Sousuke reminded himself not to touch him until he took a bath. “And seriously, you probably scarred those fucking kids for life; do you even realize how creepy and scary you were just now?”

“They were in the way of me and Water,” Haru said. “No one escapes that unscathed.”

Sousuke snorted. “You are absolutely crazy, you know that?”

“Then what does that say about you, since you’re dating me?” Haru retorted, a small smirk growing on his face.

“At least I’m not sitting in a puddle of pee that barely passes my ankles,” Sousuke spat.

All Haru said was, “Any water is good water.”

And Sousuke didn’t really have a good argument for that.

Haru insisted on sitting in that stupid kiddy pool for another hour before Sousuke was finally able to wrestle him out. As he yanked his boyfriend home (or at least in the direction he _thought_ home was), he could only hope that those people wouldn’t come hunting them down for ruining their party. If they did, Sousuke was throwing Haruka to the wolves.

His stupid boyfriend deserved it, after all the crap he put Sousuke through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's the end!! Souharu Week was really fun (even if it was a little stressful to get an entry out sometimes) and I thank everyone who took the time to read this!! :')  
> I also thank everyone else who participated in souharu week - seeing all of the writing and art everywhere was awesome! I wish every day could be like that, haha.


End file.
